Google to Penalize BackLink Networks in Spain and Italy

Many unscrupulous SEOs had learned that Google was paying less attention to spammy backlinks coming from non-US Countries. For example, there was a time where unscrupulous SEOs would use Russian and Polish link networks to get thousands of backlinks for their clients. It is quite easy to find these networks on blackhat sites and forums all over the Internet. They hide in the open; meaning it is only a matter of time until Google identifies them and penalizes them. If you can find them, so can Google. Once Russia and Poland dried up, it appears the game moved to Spain and Italy. Matt Cutts of Google put out a tweet yesterday that the backlink networks in Spain and Italy will be penalized.

What Does a Penalty from Google Do?

We get this question quite a bit. A penalty from Google means a keyword that once delivered plenty of traffic to your site, as it was once ranked highly on Google, is no longer ranked well, and is now not driving any (or hardly any) traffic to your site.

When a site gets penalized like that, the notice is usually placed in your GWT (Google Webmaster tools) account. An email will also get sent to the typical default email addresses of the site like webmaster@yourdomain.com.

Once you get that notification, you will need to clean-up your spammy backlinks by removing them and filing a reconsideration request with Google. This process can go back and forth several times before the issue is resolved. Moreover, this process can take plenty of time until the penalty is dropped. There are other penalties too; for example if you cloak content, or write gibbering etc. You can find details in the notification you receive. We strongly recommend you oblige Google’s request as soon as you receive it.

Lesson: don’t buy backlinks, and don’t do blackhat SEO!

If you need help with white-hat SEO, or if you have been penalized, give us a call at1-800-585-3222.